After reading Ultimate Spider-Man 200, I wanted to reread some issues that I remembered.

This issue opens with Spider-Man being tied by . . . The Ringer!

The Ringer is straight up from Waldorf, Maryland. Which I love how much Spider-Man is thrown off by this bragging.

The Ringer calls Spider-Man a mutant (a running gag throughout this short arc, but I am only reviewing this first issue).

This very cool new brunette superhero is on the scene, and she wants the mutant race talk to cease.

The new hero is really Kitty Pryde, we’ll get to the why the new costume later in the issue. It is such a great reason. Kitty starts wailing on the Ringer.

I like how Kitty is so used to shutting fools down, that she’s surprised when it doesn’t work. While the guy is freaking out, she notices that Spider-Man is getting into an even tighter bind.

Is this the first time she phased him? I believe she phased her hand through his chest on their first date, but that was probably super quick, as she was only showing him her powerset.

I like how willingly Kitty shows her sexuality with her comment about how him not wearing a shirt is a real bonus for her. She’s enjoying this relationship with him.

I like how the Ringer is so second rate, that he is taken out by a basic webbing to a wall technique.

As the Ringer turns around, Kitty finally notices that he has a mechanic contraption on his back. Which I would assume she would have noticed earlier but he never does turn around in front of her. Plus, she’s use to mutants who don’t require any fancy gizmos so she might not have been looking either. By touching the contraption, there is a giant explosion.

That panel of Spider-Man with his gloves, when he is screaming “Kitty” – Spider-Man looks odd without his shirt, right? Reminds me of times when Batman rights with the cowl, but shirtless and capeless. It is a good look, but it is unusual to see.

I like how Kitty tries to shame Peter in not knowing how her power works. He doesn’t have to worry about her, as much. He wants some boyfriend concern points but her “technically” says it all.

The Ringer isn’t thrilled with this turn of events. Spider-Man works in putting his shirt on, he doesn’t need to be showing his goods.

How funny is Kitty, written by Bendis? Pretty darn! Gosh, I really did enjoy Peter and Kitty together, they have such great chemistry.

She tells him to look at the Ringer’s butt, and he rather he didn’t. She notices that the Ringer has his wallet on him. Who carries their wallet on them, and commit crimes? I recall stories of the Proper Marvel Universe Spider-Man wanting to buy a snack or some other small purchase, and not having any pockets, meant that he didn’t have any money on them. When I got married, I didn’t have my wallet on me. It was one of the few times I’ve been outside and without my wallet.

The Ringer’s real name is Anthony Davis from Medina County, Ohio – so he isn’t from Maryland. He must have said that to throw people off, but it sure does confuse Spider-Man. Which I know Bendis is from Ohio but looking the name up, turns out he is a proper Marvel character who got Ultimatized in this issue. Who got Ultimated? Who now has an Ultimate counterpart, yeah, that seems to be better.

The police arrive on the scene and Spider-Man knows that means they have to take off now. Kitty keeps wanting to shout the guy’s information. Are people from a county? Shouldn’t his driver’s license only say “Medina” or whatever city within the county the Ringer is from?

I do like how instead of calling him The Ringer, Kitty keeps calling him, Hula Hoop Guy – she wasn’t on the scene when he announced himself, so tries to come up with his villain name.

Once alone, Kitty lets Peter in on a secret – he has the worst villains. She has fought, with him, the Ringer and the Shocker, and both are below average in difficulty. Bendis takes the time to take a swipe at the Ultimates, as they did spend the first six issues of their series, fighting each other. Ultimates 2 is a much better volume, if you want more of a hero v villain plot.

Spider-Man swings them over to the Daily Bugle. Once they land, Kitty explains her brilliant idea. She wants to create a separate costumed identity so that the world doesn’t put the X-Men’s Shadowcat and Spider-Man together as a couple. Kitty wants to date Peter Parker and be seen out in public with him. A couple pairings is an old fashion team-up but anymore than that is suspicious. So Shadowcat can’t be seen with Spider-Man too many times as people seeing Kitty Pryde and Peter Parker, it wouldn’t take much to make the connection that Spider-Man may be Peter Parker. Kitty Pryde is a public figure, so a simple Google search reveals that she is an X-Man.

Kitty wants Peter to come up with her new name. He comes up with, Spider-Girl, she quickly shuts it down and he has no other ideas. Spider-Man, was as good as he came up with. Well, in the Ultimate Universe, the wrestling league came up with it.

Sorry, our scanner is only so big so the top panels are missing – mostly it is Kitty repeating that she wants help with the new name – the costume doesn’t lend itself to any ideas. After that, Kitty gives a giant, Yahoo, as webslinging must be fun.

Also missing is Kitty, once again, needing to have Peter say that he wants this relationship – which now that I’m this far removed from it, I want to say she does rather often. She may have always been more committed to the relationship than he was.

Okay, we are at the house panel, so you can follow along, dear reader.

Peter worries about how his aunt will handle him being in a relationship. Kitty points out that all of the horrible things that his aunt had to deal with, is simply due to him being Spider-Man. He’s not ready to tell his aunt his spider-secret – so it isn’t Kitty related at all. That slash she is the easier thing to say, less revealing on his part.

Kitty wants to simply date Peter. She comes up with the great idea that, if Peter had a girlfriend, that would give him plenty of opportunities to lie to his aunt and put on some red and blue spandex. She takes another swipe at his lame villains, he tries to mock her’s but she does have some decent villains – Magneto, Hellfire Club and the Brotherhood.

Kitty mentions Mojo, which is important as this Deadpool arc is a sort of sequel to the Ultimate X-Men Most Dangerous Game arc. Which I’ll review one of these days but since I’m already reviewing five issues inspired from one issue, I feel like I’m already down one rabbit hole. We’ll get there.

Kitty tells Peter that she is very open about her being a mutant, so she would not not tell Aunt May. Kitty will also tell her that she is an X-Man. I like how Peter’s first thought is how does a kid from Midtown High School dating one of the X-Men. They do need a better cover story than ‘meeting in a mall.’

The X-Plane arrives, it is on remote now.

Her teammates thought it was cool that she was dating Spider-Man but they are over it. Peter should just be out with dating Kitty. That is a pretty decent kiss!

Kitty gets into it and phases through him, which both ruins the moment and not grosses but unsettles him. Peter wants her to call him, once she goes home. Their relationship really is good, except for his complications.

I like that Bendis gives us a full page of Kitty’s thoughts. She barely got much play in X-Men, so I was all for her slowly getting onto this title. Kitty hasn’t told any of her teammates about her new costume identity idea, she really isn’t that close to anyone at the mansion.

I really like her wanting a life outside of the X-Men, which more X-Men should want that in every dimension.

She worries about pushing him away.

There is an add for the first Fantastic Four movie. Ioan Gruffudd will always be my Reed Richards.

Kitty comes home to an empty mansion, which must be super unsettling. She must think they are out on an adventure until she runs into Wolverine.

Who isn’t Wolverine, rut row! He tries to stab her, she lets him phase through her and she takes off. He attempts an energy attack.

Kitty feels the sting of the energy attack. Storm enters the room but she doesn’t recognize, Ororo, as a word. So that isn’t Storm and Kitty phases down a floor.

Kitty heads to the garage but men with guns are already there. Kitty’s first thought for help is to call the Ultimates, that can’t be a good sign of her confidence in a certain wall crawler. She phases through some computers and the X-Plane sequence is set.

Kitty is outnumbered and is knocked out. We got a pretty great six page sequence that didn’t have Spider-Man on any page – that is a nice commitment.

Meanwhile, at the Parker House. Aunt May is getting ready for a date, she doesn’t care what he has been up to. He notices the X-Plane is going to his spot that he meets Kitty. Is that an abandon house or something?

Once entering the plane, it sets course back to the mansion. We learn that it is only a twenty minute plane ride to Westchester, which seems super reasonable.

That is super funny, Peter saying “Hello Kitty” and then immediately recognizing it. What keeps that franchise alive? Is there a new cartoon, how are people discovering it or getting into it? The dolls and various other merchandise isn’t that cute.

Shadowcat walks up to Spider-Man, his spider-sense goes off but he doesn’t know why. She then blasts Spider-Man and knocks him out. Issue ends with Kitty shifting into . . . Deadpool and the Reavers!

Aunt May was at the school assembly and comes home, declaring that there will be no more super heroes. She wants them to stop until the heat goes down. Aunt May thinks Johnny is cute. Gwen wants to know if anyone has heard from Kitty.

Bobby hasn’t and Aunt May is worried about whoever becomes the new principal. She is mostly worried about having one of her kids being hunted by the government. Aunt May was the boys to take this opportunity to be normal and live their lives, properly. Bobby wants to look for Kitty.

Gwen reminds them that Kenny is with Kitty. Bobby is worried Kitty is going to join a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants – I would be more worried about her starting one.

Very funny exchange about Peter calling Bobby paranoid and him committing to it.

Aunt May wants the costumes to stay in the closet. She also lets them know that she knows how to use the Internet and will be checking for any superhero sightings.

Bobby wants to use this opportunity to get a job, as he has no money. Peter says the Burger Frog is hiring. Bobby is new there, so he is called, a Tad Pole. Pretty clever, management. Johnny shows up to harass Bobby and gets his underpants frozen, as thanks.

Mary Jane arrives,Kitty wouldn’t have called her. Mary Jane has tried Kenny’s house but no one answers the phone. Is Bobby hitting on Mary Jane? She wants to speak with Gwen too. I like how Gwen misunderstands Mary Jane’s intentions, as she says Peter can talk to her on his own, as she trusts him. Bobby’s “Dun Dun Dun” is fun.

Mary Jane shows the footage that she recorded. Mary Jane wants advice on what to do with the footage. She would like to use the footage to save Principal Suitress’ job, or at least, his reputation. Gwen and Peter have a quick fight, what is that about? Peter knows the best person to talk to.

Peter takes Mary Jane to the Daily Bugle. Peter introduces Mary Jane to Ben Urich. The Daily Bugle is an exclusive online newspaper now. Peter misses the old fashion office, whereas Mary Jane really digs the new layout. Ben doesn’t remember meeting Mary Jane before, but from the dialogue, I take it, it wasn’t on panel.

Urich is impress with Mary Jane’s whereof all to film the event. Urich explains their situation – it is news but you don’t want to make the victim more of a victim. On the other hand, the FBI was grossly wrong and the principal was trying to make it right. He offers to pay Mary Jane for the footage.

There is an ad for the Honda Insight.

He offers ten thousand, pumps it up to twenty thousand and Mary Jane keeps declining. He was only testing her, to make sure she was serious. Urich states that they don’t show the footage, they report it. He asks if they know where Kitty is, and they don’t.

Peter sees Jameson, and his spider sense goes off. Peter starts following his trail. Mary Jane tries to cover for Peter. Urich asks how long she has known Kitty, she says on this school year.

Peter catches up to Jameson, and he doesn’t recognize the kid, so Peter knows something is wrong. We get the cover scene recreated. He knocks Peter out in his confusion. Jameson takes Peter’s wallet and puts Peter in his trunk. He wakes Peter up, and while holding his face, shifts into Peter. This is the first appearance of Ultimate Chameleon, which is a shame as he is the first super villain that proper Spider-Man fought.

He knocks out Peter, once he learns his voice. Apparently it hurts when he shifts his height from 5’11 to 5’5.

“Peter” heads back up to Mary Jane and Urich, as he saw him talking to them earlier. Urich is still asking questions, such as if Mary Jane knew she was an X-Man. She did, as Kitty was very open about that. The issue ends with Peter confirming he doesn’t want to be on the record.

Issue opens with the principal asking the agents to have a heart. The one agent saying the class is only for humans, is going way to far! What mess up federal law was that? Kenny punches the agent to his dumb face. Johnny has some respect for Kenny now. Agent Stevenson is the not horrible one. Kenny starts shouting about how Kitty is innocent.

Bobby wants to get in the fight but Peter says to stand down. Johnny also wants to do something but listens to Peter. Peter asks Kitty to put an end to this, and with a tear, she dies inside. Her one non-powered friend, is willing to go to jail to her, while her three powered friends, decide to just stand there and do nothing.

Kitty stands up and tells everyone to stop. One of the agents tries to arrest her but she reminds Kenny that she was an X-Man.

Kitty starts phasing Kenny through the floor. Everyone is happy that she is on the run, which is an odd reaction. The agents start running, somewhere. The principal and Peter exchange a look.

Iron Man is coming to theaters as there is a slew of products.

Kitty has phased the two of them into the sewer. Kitty is pretty thankful to Kenny for standing up for her. Kenny awkwardly tells her that he still loves her, but it wasn’t like he wanted to get back with her, that wasn’t his motivation. Though, he would get back with her, if she wanted to. I don’t quite recall them dating or why they broke up, but I’m sure we’ll get to those issues one day. They kiss.

That is some kiss! Kitty comes up with a plan.

At a school assembly, the principal is disgusted by the turn of events. He gives an impassioned speech, which ends with him stating he is resigning. Not like it mattered, as he was about to be fired, regardless.

At the Parker Home for Wayward Heroes. No one is happy with their decision. Peter knew that it would have escalated if powers got involved. Bobby really wanted to do something, X-Men Represent, yo! Peter tells everyone to hero up and they end over to Kitty’s house. The media has gotten word of what happened and they are camped out in front of the Pryde home. Spider-Man sees something.

There is a huge explosion! The Shroud appears and starts cursing at the stupid flatscanners.

Spider-Man foolishly dives at the Shroud and passes right through the person. Bobby uses the word, phase, and finally figures out who the Shroud. A mystery that has lasted since the first issue of this relaunch. Shroud punches Bobby’s dumb face.

The Shroud takes off her mask, revealing her to be . . . KITTY PRYDE!!! Which is a pretty awesome reveal.

Shroud is disgusted with her would-be friends. Why will they help her now when they wouldn’t at the beginning of all of this? Shroud calls Human Torch a himbo, a word that was popular back in 2010, oh so many years ago.

Ultimate Kitty becomes like the Proper Vision, is that she controls her density, which is a power upgrade I wish the Proper Kitty Pryde would learn. It makes her even more of a threat.

Spider-Man wants her to stop, as she is becoming the threat the media always said she was. She goes all Quieten Quire and says that, Magneto was right.

Shroud superpunches Spider-Man’s stupid face. Mrs. Pryde wants Spider-Man, who crashed through her window, to help her daughter.

Human Torch tells her to calm down, which is something that has always helped. Iceman freezes Shroud, he walks up to the ice cube to inspect it and Shroud phases her head, resulting in giving him a headbutt. A move, I would never recommend anyone does, it hurts both you and your opponent.

Shroud explains the obvious power upgrade. She gets to lash out on her silly friends. She calls Spider-Man, a human, which is as low as insults go. Iceman is a race traitor. She starts phasing into the ground.

The boys head over to a manhole cover. Johnny heats it, Bobby freezes it and Spider-Man smashes it with his foot. He does go as far as to say that he could have done his part from the beginning. Or, you know, they could have just lifted it like people do.

Johnny isn’t built for sewers. They can’t see her, even with Johnny’s flame lighting the way. Spider-Man shouts that they love her and they only want to help. Iceman calls her, Kit, which doesn’t sound good. Johnny wants them to leave, like how she requested.

I know Lafuente has a rep for being a cartoony artist but look at that page above. So much intensity there!

Issue ends with Mary Jane reviewing the recording she made. Jessica Jones looks over her shoulder and declares that Mary Jane just bought herself into any college she will want to attend.

I relooked at the pages above and I don’t see her recording any of it, she is simply holding her binder but maybe it was from the previous issue.

I will be reviewing the next chapter of this storyline and it will be my last as Kitty doesn’t show up for the rest of the storyline or the series until the 15th issue. I have that issue on my Wishlist.

I only only the first three chapters of this storyline and will be reviewing all three shortly.

This volume of Ultimate Spider-Man happens after Ultimatum, me pointing that out will make sense at the end of the issue.

Brooklyn, 12:45pm – Bombshell (who is a mother and daughter team – the younger one will later be a member of the All New Ultimates) are knocking over an armor truck. The truck only has six bags of cash but that should be enough. All I really need in life is like $100,000.00 and I could be out of debt – student loans be crazy!

They are glad there are no police or Spider-Man around when they both get webbing in their eyes. They start spouting profanities, which I always read as “fuck.” Spider-Woman calls them out on their language. The mother daughter team keeps swearing. The mother wants Lana to take the money and run but she isn’t going without a fight. I wonder if they talk about this exchange ever, once they are on the same team. Lana calls Spider-Woman nothing but a Spider-Man wanna be with a B-Cup. Which she must barely be an A-Cup, so that must be some jealousy with the comment.

Nothing wrong with a B-Cup, look at Ashley Judd and Andie McDowell, even Michelle Pfeiffer.

Human Torch shows up, makes a crack about how there is enough of him for all the women present. Johnny chases them with fire and Spider-Woman knocks them out. Johnny tries to ask Spider-Woman out and she motors.

Poor Jessica, let’s just call her that, finds a dark place and takes her mask off. Johnny was stalking her, so he now sees her actual face and is even more in love. He would marry her, if she would have him. He keeps pressing her for a date. She can’t believe he won’t let up.

Over at Midtown High School. Peter is trying to get to class, his girlfriend – Gwen Stacy – wants to take him to the ladies bathroom. He is still maintaining his A grade point average.

Kitty points out the stall he is suppose to go into. Mary Jane is there and it is time for Peter’s haircut. Which I was going to comment on, before the page, but his hair was so long, I thought it was Kitty for a moment.

I’m with Peter, I wouldn’t want these three broads hanging out together and eating lunch – nothing good can come from that. Except for this haircut! They all point out how round his head is, when he wears his mask, he has a perfectly round head. Which I can only imagine this is a fun critique of Lafuente’s cartoony style.

Tandy, Ultimate Dagger, comes into the stall and is not thrilled that there is a boy in the room nor a haircut taking place. To make it worst, a mutant is amongst them. I wonder if Kitty ever brought this up with Dagger later. I remember her being racist but her current persona isn’t like this at all. I wonder if Bendis regretted this or purposely did it to build her into a better person.

Parker Home. Aunt May loves the haircut. This is during the era when Spider-Man, Iceman, Human Torch and Gwen Stacy lived in her house. Such a great era! Bobby thinks Peter has a pretty face. Johnny comes home and tells everyone that he is in love.

There is an ad for Amazing Spider-Man 538, by Joe Quesada, which came out in June 2010. The ad is promoting, One Moment in Time, so I’ve not been collecting Spider-Man comics for a solid five years.

Johnny thanks Peter, if it wasn’t for him, he never would have known love. Peter isn’t sure who is a hot chick he knows as Spider-Man. He names Silver Sabre, Elektra and Black Cat. Gwen is not too happy that Peter knows so many hot ladies. Both Johnny and Bobby want to meet this Black Cat. Gwen thinks they all sound like skanks. All three of them are well in their twenties, so they wouldn’t waste any time with a teenager. Which is the right call.

Johnny finally explains which hot chick it is, Spider-Woman. Peter can’t believe it is Jessica who Johnny is attracted to. Which is a good time to mention how clever a line of Bobby saying Peter has a pretty face is. Jessica is Peter’s clone, so if she is pretty – at all- then that means he has a pretty face. If Johnny is attracted to Jessica, then there must be something that he finds attractive about Peter.

Making things worst, is that Johnny claims he made out with Jessica. Hearing this, and getting it confirmed a few more times, Peter runs out of the house in a panic. If Jessica did kiss Johnny, and I highly suspect that she didn’t, then there must be something in Peter that is attracted to Johnny. Which this is a subject matter that the opposite-gender clone plotline (it happens) rarely deals with.

Spider-Man goes on a crime fighting spree that involves punching Ultimate Owl. Do you know how to draw an owl? You draw two circles . . . and then you draw the rest of the owl.

I saw this a few days ago and I keep thinking about it.

Back at school. One of their teachers, Ms. Shutz, is trying to inspire seniors to do better in their classes. Johnny is still pestering Peter for why he way overreacted. Outside of the classroom, the principal and two federal agents are looking into the room. The principal wants Kitty to get her things and head outside.

Kitty is confused what the principal could want. This is what he referenced to in an earlier appearance (which I’m not sure was on panel) that the school may have problems with her being a mutant. She didn’t do anything, in fact, she’s the model student.

Kitty gets it together and starts thinking about the situation. What can anyone even do to her. She can phase through their bullets then then the idiot behind her will be killed. Which I really like the reaction of the fool who sits behind her, he is very concern.

Marjorie Liu is interviewed on the Women of Marvel page, that was a thing during this year. I had forgotten she was around Marvel even back then.

The agents start making a move on Kitty. Peter finally stands up and says what they are attempting is not right. Also, that they are trying to make Kitty mad so that they can justify their incorrect actions. The issue ends with Peter yelling at Kitty to run as she whispers that all she wants is to go to school like everybody else.

So after taking a detour with the reviews that I wanted to do after Ultimate Spider-Man 200, I went and checked all of the issues of Ultimate Spider-Man, with various volumes and such, to see if Kitty Pryde is referenced in any issues that I don’t own. Turns out, Kingpin mentions her name in this issue, lucky for me, this was still in my Lonestar Comics To Sell comic boxes, so I was able to take it out and not add yet another comic to my Wishlist. Which I had to do for Ultimate Spider-Man Volume Two Issue 15. I did check Miles’ two series as well. She has yet to appear in any of his solo titles.

So after this, I will get back to my Christmas 2014 comics.

I reviewed issue one of this storyline during Daredevil Month (April 2015) and now I’m reviewing part four. I’ll get to parts two and three, at some point, and I don’t own the concluding chapter.

Okay, onto the issue!

Matt Murdock, while in a courtroom, overhears a radio announcement that Midtown High School has become another site of a super powered showdown.

One of the main scenes of this issue, and I really dig it, is a conversation between Kingpin and Spider-Man, who is unmasked. This is Bendis at his very best.

Spider-Man wakes up to Kingpin holding an action figure of his. This starts essentially a seven page monologue of Kingpin’s. Kingpin wonders if Spider-Man is a mutant. He still doesn’t know who Spider-Man really is, he was tempted to run his fingerprints but he knows that he is on Nick Fury’s watchlist. If he ran his fingerprints, within five minutes, the Ultimates would be crashing through his window.

Kingpin wonders why Spider-Man isn’t on the Ultimates. All he really cares about, is that this kid is Spider-Man. He does know which high school he attends, so if he ever needs to find him, he easily can. While talking to him, he starts hitting him with his action figure – which is pretty funny. Kingpin threatens to blow up his high school.

Spider-Man is a teenager, so he may not care about his school. Kingpin then steps too far and threatens to blow up the Xavier School of Mutants. It is amazing that Spider-Man can stay silent for all of this, but he probably is feeling bombarded by all of this information. Clearly, Kingpin has this entire speech rehearsed.

Kingpin knows that Spider-Man is dating Kitty Pryde, the X-Men’s Shadowcat. He knows this due to the Internet. Man, I would really like to see how quickly Kingpin tries to take on the X-Men and be handed his large ass to him. Lard ass, look at me making jokes.

Kingpin mentions now they have something in common. Spider-Man knows where Kingpin works and he now knows where he goes to school, he can get in touch with Spider-Man, whenever he needs to. Kingpin starts making counter arguments. One day, Spider-Man may reveal who he really is to the world – when that happens, Kingpin will know exactly who his parents are. Kingpin could easily kill Spider-Man, right now.

Kingpin rather not kill him, as he owns a parent company that owns the license rights to Spider-Man. He is going to flood the market with Spider-Merchandise. So killing Spider-Man, is bad business. Spider-Man can try to stop Kingpin’s criminal campaigns but Kingpin is making crazy amounts of profit off of Spider-Man. Anytime he does something good, Fisk is making money. Legitimate money. Kingpin repeats, several times, that he owns Spider-Man.

Kingpin gets to the point, he wants Spider-Man to go back to his vigilante knights pals and tell them to stop coming after him.

Kingpin starts punching the assassin that he sent to Midtown High to capture Spider-Man. He knows that this is yet another identity of Moon Knight’s. He tells Moon Knight, in a Ronin style outfit – the Ronin that Echo and Hawkeye later wore. Kingpin reveals that Matt Murdock, Daredevil, works for him. Murdock is his lawyer.

The Knights are playing a game, that Kingpin invented – which is a very cool thing to say. If the Knights keep coming after him, Kingpin will beat them all like he is doing to Moon Knight.

Kingpin knows that if Spider-Man died, people will seek out Spider-merchandise and he will get some last money that way. I like Kingpin, recognizing Spider-Man’s silence, asks if Spider-Man would like to make any fat jokes now. Spider-Man has been knocked out, at this point. Kingpin wants Spider-Man to keep saving people. Kingpin knows that Green Goblin is his old golf buddy, Norman Osborn.

If Peter decided to stop being Spider-Man, Wilson Fisk will just simply hire someone to be Spider-Man. I really like the idea of how Spider-Man has brought Peter no benefits but now, Kinpin is making loads of profits.

Meanwhile, Daredevil crashes through a window. He is investigating an office. He finds something and calls Doctor Strange. Wong answers the phone and states that Strange is in deep mediating, which is code for sex time.

Doctor Strange teleports to where Daredevil is. Daredevil is the leader of the Knights. Strange recognizes the office as belong to the Kingpin. Ultimate Doctor Strange is sort of a celebrity, who appears on talk shows. I like how neither Daredevil nor Strange knows how each other’s powers work. Doctor Strange casts a spell and can follow the trace that Daredevil senses. He creates an image for him (and us) to see but Daredevil can’t see it.

Moon Knight wasn’t working according to the plan, he went rogue. Maybe they shouldn’t have let a mentally unbalance person lose on his own.

Strange wonders why no one is on this floor. Daredevil reveals that this Kingpin’s personal floor, the only people who work on the floor are related to his criminal empire. That way, he doesn’t have to worry about the wrong people eavesdropping. Daredevil has been working on bringing down Kingpin, for a very long time.

The two heroes go down an elevator shaft. Strange isn’t happy that his cloak got filthy. The trail leads to a giant door and Daredevil can’t sense what is behind it. Strange can’t teleport inside as, like Nightcrawler, he needs to be able to know w hat is inside so he doesn’t merge with a desk. They go into the room, the door wasn’t lock and it appears no one has been there for a while. This is the room that the Kingpin / Spider-Man conversation occurred in. Daredevil wants to get the Knights together.

Daredevil, Shang Chi, Iron Fist and Doctor Strange are on a rooftop. Daredevil wants to locate Spider-Man but no one knows how to do that. Daredevil tells everyone that he is Catholic. Iron Fist isn’t surprised that Moon Knight went a tad crazy, he is dressed as the moon, after all. Just then, Daredevil gets some webbing to his face.

Spider-Man starts wailing on Daredevil. He keeps calling Daredevil names and he is disgusted with him. Daredevil is clearly outmatched by an angry Spider-Man.

Daredevil takes off his mask, that way he is free of the webbing. He gets Spider-Man to calm down enough to explain himself. He tells Daredevil that he knows that Murdock works for Fisk. Daredevil really don’t know what is happening. Daredevil is very surprised that Kingpin knows his real name and his profession. Spider-Man isn’t buying this mock confusion.

Just then, Murdock’s law office is blown up. It is what all Kingpins do to Daredevils. Murdock doesn’t care, no one was working this late at night and he isn’t going to give Kingpin the satisfaction of running around the debris.

Daredevil reveals that Kingpin killed his father, all because he wouldn’t throw a boxing match. Before he dies, he wants to make sure that the Kingpin has been dethroned. Sadly, he will die before Kingpin does. Murdock doesn’t want to kill the Kingpin, he wants to bring him into a courtroom and have the system take him down. He feels like he is so above the law, that he needs to see how it officially works.

Somehow Kingpin figured out who Daredevil is. He poses the question and instantly hears a heartbeat spike. He starts choking Iron Fist, as he is the mole on the team, which is how the issue ends.

Daredevil dies in Ultimatum (actually in an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man, 131) and Kingpin is killed by Ultimate Mysterio, in his rise of power, in Ultimate Spider-Man Volume Two Issue 1, so the issue right after Ultiatmum ends, so he doesn’t live in a Daredevil-less world for long.

Before Bendis kills Peter Parker, he gives him one last nice day. This is also our last revisit to Ultimate Spider-Man for some time.

Issue opens with Peter being fired from his fast food job. Him being Spider-Man, meant that he couldn’t go to work for two days and he didn’t call in so he is fired. He was off helping save the world with Iron Man. Peter gets a call from Jameson, who wants to meet with him.

Spider-Man swings over to the Daily Bugle, he was hoping this was going to go away. Jameson revealed recently, that he knows Peter is Spider-Man. One benefit to his knowledge is that the Daily Bugle has been Pro-Spider-Man, as of late. I like that the Daily Bugle is in the same building that it is from the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man movies, the Flatiron Building.

While waiting for Jameson, Peter has a chance to remember how much he loved working there. Urich says hello and Jameson waves him into his office.

Peter slash Spider-Man saved Jameson’s life and he now wants to help Peter. Peter tells him that there isn’t anything he has to do for him.

There is an ad for Uncanny X-Men 535 & 536, the Breakworld sequel brought to us by Kieron Gillen and the Dodsons.

Peter asks to have his old job back. Jameson can’t believe that is his request, as he wasn’t paid anything for it. Peter is trying to save for college. Jameson wants to know why Peter wants to go to college, as from his point of view, Peter doesn’t need college. Peter explains that being Spider-Man brings him no money. Jameson is going to pay for Peter’s college.

There is an ad for Ultimate Avengers v New Ultimates 3, the issue wherein Punisher shoots Spider-Man, weakening him for his big fight with the Green Goblin, though it is a whole mess how the two stories interlock. That’s my memory, at least.

Peter is shocked, as that wasn’t even what he was hinting at. Jameson is rich, so he doesn’t mind. Peter really can’t accept such a gift, he wants to pay his own way. Jameson gives Peter his old job back but with a raise, he will also be starting a scholarship for Peter. He hints that Peter may not be alive to go to college. I like Peter setting out the parameters of the job he will need. He needs a job where he can not show up for a couple days and have it be okay. He wants absences to not be a reason to be fired over.

Jameson agrees, he also wants every exclusive on whatever Spider-Man does.

An explosion occurs and we get Ultimate Rocket Racer, with a buddy. The Shroud calls them idiots.

Look how effective the Shroud takes these fools down! That silly guy, Spider-Man shows up, even though there isn’t anything for him to do.

Well, he does web them up, so that is something. Spider-Man starts calling the Shroud, Kitty, to which, I wish Kitty started calling him Peter – that would have shut him up.

Queens. Peter and Kitty are catching up. See Kitty’s shirt? That Bendis really likes to try to sneak in Lockheed – first in Ultimate Spider-Man Annual 1 in the Danger Room when they went up against a giant purple dragon and now this appearance on her shirt.

Kitty refers to her current look as, goth, but those are some bright colors! Peter takes credit that they beat the two villains, but he merely was on clean up duty. He is right, that she is getting stronger. She gets lots of opportunity to beat on some fools.

Peter makes a mistake of saying that he is glad she hasn’t turn bad or evil. She is right in being insulted by the comment. Peter tries to change the subject by asking about Kenny.

Kitty is surprised about Peter’s lack of knowing. Kenny couldn’t take life on the run, and went home to his mommy and she moved them to Wisconsin. Hello, Wisconsin! There was a time when I wanted to name a daughter, Wisconsin and I’m not even that big of a fan of That 70’s Show. I still think Nadia is a great name for a girl.

Kitty emphasizes that she isn’t okay, she is merely living. Peter invites her to come inside for some dinner. She agrees and asks him how his life is going.

I really like the idea of Peter forgetting that his birthday was today. He has had quite the life since he was first bit by that Oz infected spider.

That is pretty messed up of Bendis to turn Peter 16, just to kill him in five more issues, right?

Bobby is super excited to see Kitty.

Mary Jane gets Peter alone and she is immediately jealous of Kitty, who is the better girlfriend but Peter is destined to end up with Mary Jane.

Mary Jane gives Peter the gift that Tony Stark gave him. I like how Aunt May invited him to this party as well as the two year anniversary of Peter’s death, she has his address, might a well send the invitation. The gift is pretty amazing, a pair of high tech webshooters. Peter gets lost in thought and forgets Mary Jane is in the room.

Samnee draws Mary Jane more like how I imagine a 16 year old Proper Mary Jane would look like.

Peter tells Mary Jane he loves her. Mary Jane really wants to hear Peter say he isn’t in Kitty, so jealous. He is willing to earn Mary Jane back but all it takes is him wanting her to get her back. That is pretty nice!

The issue ends with them kissing and Mary Jane calling him, Tiger, which she apparently likes to say nw.

How great is that final caption in the last panel, next issue : The Death of Spider-Man. It doesn’t get more serious than that.

I like how Bendis gives Peter one last great day and returns Kitty to the title, though she really doesn’t come back as this is my last issue of Ultimate Spider-Man until issue 200.

This issue takes place right after the conclusion of the Deadpool arc, which this is a two part story – so that makes six, which is a trade!

Months Ago. Spider-Man breaks up a would-be mugging but that isn’t what is happening. We see Ultimate Blade, and of course, Spider-Man thinks he is the heavy in the scene. The person Spider-Man thinks is being mugged, turns out to be a vampire and Spider-Man loses his mind and panics. Blade cuts himself out of the webbing and kills the vampire.

Today. Peter calls his girlfriend, Kitty Pryde. During the Deadpool arc, with all of the hidden cameras, the world has discovered that Shadowcat and Spider-Man are dating. So now the Internet is blowing up about the pair. Xavier has grounded all of the X-Men, so Kitty can’t hang out with him. Her being in Storm’s room implies they are good friends, but are any of them decent friends?

So now that the world knows Shadowcat is dating Spider-Man, and on such a huge stage – Kitty Pryde can’t date Peter Parker, so they have to keep hiding their real relationship.

For once, Peter gets to show that he is concerned with the relationship being over. Kitty assures him that they are still together.

What would their celebrity name be? Spider-Cat is way to obvious. As far as I know, the online community in RL never came them a name, like they did with Proper Kitty Pryde and Iceman (Bobkat) and Kitty Pryde and Peter Quill (StarKat). ShadowSpider is pretty cool.

Peter overhears Jameson shouting vampires at Ben Urich. Jonah is not going to run some silly story about vampires. Phil has the extremely excellent point that the world they live in as – mutants, Spider-guys, super soldiers and billionaires in flying tanks, vampires shouldn’t be too far fetch. Both Marvel Universes have not been the same since the 1940s.

Peter borrows a copy of the article and sees that Ben interviews Jennifer Grunwald, who is based off of the then head of the trade collections at Marvel. She was an active poster over on the JoeQuesada.com message boards. We get to read the article and see the images of Ben’s interview.

Later at school. Peter runs into Mary Jane, who is not happy. Peter didn’t tell her of his new girlfriend, she had to read about it in People. Did the Daily Bugle not want to cover the story?

Mary Jane is acting like there is some sort of betrayal here. He broke up with her as she wouldn’t stop getting herself almost killed. Now he has a girlfriend who can take care of herself. It was two weeks ago, that they broke up. Her calling Kitty, a gangly-girl, is pretty insulting.

Mary Jane asks a hard question, does he love Kitty?

There is an add for the MC2 Universe story – Last Planet Standing – which is fun with Secret Wars 2015 on the verge of coming out.

Peter says no, not yet – which is pretty honest. He and Kitty do have loads in common and are perfect together.

Mary Jane asks if he knew Kitty while they were dating. He did but they were not even friends.

Mary Jane walks away, Peter mistakenly suggests that she may want to start dating other dudes. She gets all weird about it, asking him if he is ready to see her making out with dudes and going out on dates – like it even matters to him. I do enjoy that her ‘revenge’ on him is all physical acts. As she walks away, Peter confirms that they are still friends – her reaction is pretty boss – Yay for me. Peter mutters to watch out for vampires.

Someone not taking that advice is Ben Urich. Jennifer is in the traditional slutty vampire gear and she bites him on the neck. Over at the Daily Bugle, Betty Brant (who never gets much play), tells Peter that Ben hasn’t been seen in over a day. She suspects that Ben was finally killed by the Kingpin.

There is an ad for X-Men Fairy Tales, it isn’t very good.

Spider-Man swings across town, he looked up Jennifer’s address and sees a cloud of bats and that cloud turns into wolf. Spider-Man has to fight off the wolf as the issue ends with Morbius telling Spider-Man that he can’t win this fight. I don’t own the next issue but I can tell you this, Ben Urich doesn’t die.

Inside back cover ad is for X-Men : The Official Game, the game that ‘bridges’ between X-Men 1 and X-Men 2. The Wolverine levels are fun, Nightcrawler’s are my favorite and Iceman’s are tedious.

So I bought this issue with my Christmas giftcard to Mile High Comics. I went with the Peter cover as he is my Ultimate Spider-Man. If Kitty’s face was on the Miles’ cover, I would have gone with that one but she isn’t. I had special ordered this issue from Hastings, but they didn’t get their shipment that week (for two weeks!) so I missed out on the issue originally. If they were out of the Peter covers, I would have been fine with the Miles one.

It is weird that Mary Jane and Gwen are both captioned with being Peter’s ex-girlfriends but Kitty isn’t, right? What is up with that?

I suppose that it is nice that Kitty Pryde isn’t ‘just’ his ex-girlfriend, she has a proper identity outside of him. I do like how Kenny is only Kitty’s ex-boyfriend – nice that both genders have people with that label.

Queens, Today. Miles and his friend, Ganke, are on their way to the Parker home. Ganke is Miles’ plus one, so he brought a gift. Apparently, he likes Legos and made Gwen a Lego related gift.

The Home of Peter Parker. Which is up for sale by Realtor Alison Blaire, who is Dazzler’s real name but I don’t see Ultimate Dazzler as a Realtor. Plus, she died during Ultimatum.

Mary Jane is walking towards the house, with Liam, some dude who understands that she doesn’t want him to go into the house with her. He kisses her on the cheek, so there’s that.

In a limo, Jessica Drew and Bombshell is arriving. Their driver almost hits Liam, which on the page before, Mary Jane tells him to not get hit by a car. The driver references Galactus, so this issue takes place after Cataclysm.

Liz Allen, Firestar, catches up with Iceman, who is on his way to the Parker home as well. The Human Torch flies on the opposite side and of course, Iceman’s slide melts and he drops. Which is super funny!

We see the e-mail that May sent to everybody. Her e-mail address is – silverhippy@jeemail.com

Miles hugs Aunt May. Ganke gives Gwen the Lego present and she really likes it, Miles watches on as he is concern how this will go. Gwen gives Ganke a big ol’ kiss, and goes upstairs to put her present away. Is that ever revealed, what it was? Or do they ever kiss again?

The doorbell rings and Aunt May answers it. She sees a giant catering service, Tony Stark couldn’t attend so he sent truckloads of food.

Kitty phases through the door, like only she can! Kitty hugs Miles for saving her life. This issue takes place after Cataclysm. Kitty had punched Galactus to his stupid purple hat wearing face and she was about to get sucked into the N-Zone but Miles saved her from that fate. Thor had already gone through as Kitty was already shrinking and Galactus needed that extra shove. Invisible Woman also assisted in saving Shadowcat.

I’m not sure exactly how Kitty’s hair goes from long in that first panel, to short for the rest of the issue.

Is that look from Jessica foreshadowing All New Ultimates 4 reveal?

Johnny and Gwen start talking about the fallout from Kitty saving the world. Kitty wasn’t that impressed with meeting the President. I imagine not, having being screwed over with the whole Nation X fiasco.

I still don’t get the whole mutant racism in either Marvel Universe. Liz puts it best, how she is essentially a female Human Torch (plus the daughter of the Blob) but she is hated and feared and he gets to be the poster child of superhero cool.

Aunt May greets Kitty, who says that she thinks about Peter all of the time. Poor Kitty, I still don’t get why he downgraded from her to Mary Jane. Except that Mary Jane survived Clone Saga and Peter took petty on her.

So the knock on the door Aunt May answered, was Kenny! Kitty came through the back, so Kitty’s entrance happened at the same time. Which is a fun art / story choice.

Kitty hasn’t seen Kenny since they ran away with each other and lived in the sewers for a while. When next we saw Kitty, she told everyone that they broke up as Kenny couldn’t take living on the run. This all happened during the “Tainted Love” storyline in Spider-Man. Well, the school trying to harass Kitty and her and Kong leaving together. Kitty reveals Kenny’s fate in Ultimate Spider-Man 155, when she comes back to publication and Peter’s surprised birthday party. His last before his death, mere days later. Kenny and his parents moved to Wisconsin, so no one has seen him since he disappeared. He looks like he lost some weight. People give Kenny the reputation that he is Bendis’ avatar in the story, which was cool until he started dating Kitty Pryde – then it became a tad . . . creepy isn’t the right word.

That is a nice hug from the two of them. I mostly remember Kenny being a real jerk to Peter, when he was closer to Flash, but he told Peter he knew his Spider-secret and they became a tad closer after that. I’m not sure if Mary Jane is right in that they were close friends.

Kitty wants to talk to Kenny later, but I’m not sure if they ever do. It is never referenced again and Kenny isn’t seen again.

I do like Ultimate Jameson, it makes sense that after seeing Spider-Man’s heroism, that he would dedicate his online newspaper, is there a better word for that?, to covering Spider-Man. Not the menace he originally thought but the hero he really is. He took Peter’s death rather hard, as he knew Peter.

It makes sense that Jameson wouldn’t want to be inside the Parker home, what would he even do there besides be wall paper? May could chat with him but after the initial ten minutes, what is the point. His presence would probably change the atmosphere, with what people can talk about with him around.

Mary Jane describes how Nick Fury came into her room once, which will have to be intense. Fury was grooming Peter to be the greatest hero the world has ever known.

Aunt May goes next. I’m including her vision because of the inclusion of Kitty Pryde’s other costumed identity that she debuted in Ultimate Spider-Man 91 – the beginning of the Deadpool arc. Man, I really should review some Ultimate Spider-Man issues as I’m sort of loving this memory lane that this issue has me going down.

I’m not sure why Aunt May includes it in her thought. Or why Bagley did. I do like that robotic Scarlet Spider, I’m a nut for that design.

I completely get May’s thought that Peter would maybe outgrow this superhero idea of his. It reminds me of Kevin Smith’s Daredevil run, where he wrote Murdock’s end-game being that once he had a child, he would hang up the red costume. Which seems like a natural time to stop. Karen told him that she rather kept trying to save the world, so that their child would have a future to grow up with but I side with Murdock on this one.

May’s idea of how Peter would most likely combine his two loves – Spider-Man and Science, for some Spider-Science! Then I think about Proper Peter Parker and how he only now has Parker Industries and that is only because Doctor Octopus, being the Superior Spider-Man – in every way – came up with that idea.

Gwen talks about one of Peter’s life goals. He wanted to, one day, combine his love for fighting crime in a blue and red leotard and his love for the news. He would want to combine the two, so he could fight crimes that no one knows about, or know about instantly. Or he would want to expose stories that he heard about in the superhero community. Sort of like Superman.

Miles’ thinks about how nice it would be if he could have teamed up with Peter, sort of like he did during Spider-Men.

How tragic is Kitty’s page? Done all the better by LaFuente and (I imagine) Ponsor. Great use of purple. She would have married Peter, if he wasn’t an idiot.

Her in her Shroud identity and him as Spider-Man, fighting crime. Spider-Man teaming up with the latest incarnation of the X-Men, would have been fun. I don’t get why Morbius is there, at all. She wasn’t in even that storyline, except for a small part, which was Non-Morbius related. This was Ultimate Spider-Man 95.

I do like adult Peter and Kitty together, also, how sweet and sour those bottom images are, as they are simply them spending quiet time together.

I imagine with Kenny in the room, she doesn’t want to voice any of this.

Iceman finishes the sequences with how he and Peter would have owned the superhero community, becoming super popular.

More awkward silence.

Gwen, who luckily wears a black headband (classic!) so we can tell her apart from Liz – wants to do some good. Miles gets the great idea to donate the food, which leads into the conclusion of the issue.

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Everyone heads back to the Parker home, so they can say their goodbyes in private.

Garke gets a second kiss, this time on the cheek, from Gwen. Does this get followed up on? It must, as Bendis has a proper Spider-Man title to write.

Kitty whispers something into Kenny’s ear and waves good to the rest of the crew. This, though, does not get followed up on as Fiffe gets to write her in All New Ultimates. Which I imagine this issue is suppose to come first, as the Ultimates don’t seem to be hanging out with each other in this issue.

People start departing, the heroes first by flying or sliding away. The normal folk leave last. The issue’s last panel is that someone is watching on.

The last section of the comic, is all of the Ultimate Spider-Man covers up to this point – which is a fun way to show how they came up with the number 200. As there isn’t 200 issues of a comic title, Ultimate Spider-Man, so to make it work, some funny math is used.

Pretty great issue! I read that the mysterious figure is Ultimate Spider-Man himself, Peter Parker, Anyone who has the Oz formula in them, is immortal. So Norman and his son Harry, and Peter Parker. But I’m not sure if that is still true.

This is the first crossover between the Proper Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe. Ultimate Mysterio, turns out, was really Mysterio using an avatar. This issue, is the downtime issue, where a bunch of fan service is done.

Queens, New York. Peter Parker is taking his mask off in front of Ultimate Aunt May and Gwen Stacy. He can’t believe how young both of them are. May slaps him and knocks him to the ground and Gwen starts stomping on him.

Miles is there, and those two know him, so he tries to quickly explain the situation. He’s from an alternate Earth, meanwhile, Peter is ashamed of his decision to come to Queens. He had only wanted to see where his counterpart lived. I don’t get why, of all of the alternate Earths and timelines, this one seems to effect him the most. Maybe, it is due to how much time he is spending here or how similar it is to his home. Aunt May faints, so some things never change.

The Triskelion — Headquarters of SHIELD. The US Sanctioned Task Force. Fury and Stark are chatting. Stark is mostly embarrassed, as he doesn’t know how Mysterio broke the barrier between worlds. Fury tries to be helpful, he agrees that they have to bring Parker back in. He still feels guilty for not doing enough to save his Peter.

Gwen calls Mary Jane, she wants her to know that an older Peter Parker is here.

Now, we get to the fun part of the issue. Aunt May wakes up and overhears a conversation as she goes upstairs. Gwen is explaining to Peter the plot of Ultimate Spider-Man 66 / 67, when Ultimate Spider-Man and Wolverine switched bodies. I own the second one of those issues, so I’ll review it one of these days.

Peter confirms that Gwen lives with Aunt May, she explains it is because her father is dead and her mother left. Gwen asks about her counterpart, and Peter evades the questions for the most part. Gwen wants to know if they dated, which he quietly explains that it is complicated. She mentions MJ and his ears perk up.

Peter states that his MJ is a model, which blows Gwen’s mind. She fancies herself much more the model type, as Ultimate Mary Jane is more of a bookworm sort. Gwen really wants to know where she is on Peter’s world. I get him not wanting to tell her that his Gwen cheated on him with his best friend’s father, who is also his second greatest enemy. Then she made out with Peter, went to Europe for four months, gave birth to full formed twins and came back, made out with Peter again and then his best friend’s father throws her off a bridge. In a lame attempt to save her, he breaks her neck with a webline. So yeah, I get that he doesn’t want to ruin the laughs that they are having.

Peter notices Aunt May and asks her how she is doing.

There is an ad for the Honda Civic, so go out and buy one. It has 41 MPG Highway, so that’s pretty good.

Gwen is super excited to try to explain what and where Peter is from, Peter tells Aunt May that he isn’t stuck here, or that he is, but it is only temporary. Miles wonders what Peter’s world Miles is up too. When this series was officially released, I read the first two or three issues and then maybe the fifth one. Hastings didn’t have any copies of four – so that’s why I had to buy this as a back issue. But the fifth issue ends with Peter, on his world, doing a Google search for “Miles Morales” and that is how the series ends. With his eyes going wide and we haven’t had any teases to it since. Since Miles may be coming to the Proper Marvel Universe, we may find out what that is.

Peter confirms he has an Aunt May and she raised him along with Uncle Ben. She wonders if he is alive there, and sadly, he is dead due to Peter’s inaction. Peter starts his “With Great Power” and she finishes “Comes Great Responsibility.” This confirms that he is her Peter.

They hug and that’s a nice moment. Aunt May appreciates having this opportunity to finally say goodbye to a Peter. Aunt May tells Peter that she knew he was Spider-Man before he died. Good thing, as he died on her front yard, that would have been awkward otherwise. Once he died, the world learned that Peter Parker was Spider-Man and he died a hero. Gwen mentions, Osborn, and Peter goes cold. Next, she mentions Kitty Pryde knowing him and that intrigues him, as it should.

Gwen tells him that his Ultimate version dated Kitty Pryde, of the X-Men. One would think think that he would go straight back to his world and date his version of Shadowcat. That is the right thing to do. Bendis could have done two more issues of just him telling them about his world and them doing the same with their world.

I like Gwen being shocked that Mary Jane is a supermodel as she fancies herself the better looking one.

Miles notices the SHIELD limousine.

Fury enters the Parker home, and Peter knows he has to go and hugs Aunt May. He also hugs Gwen, which must keep him awake at night.

Once outside, Fury tells Miles to go home. Peter rather Miles sticks near him and Fury concedes. Before Peter gets in the van, he sees Mary Jane. Why he feels so comfortable walking about in full costume but with his mask off, who is he, Tobey Maguire?

Peter takes a step towards her and she darts off. Once in the van, Miles wonders if Peter has a Nick Fury. Peter says his is white and Fury is sorry to hear that. Which is pretty funny.

Aunt May is proud of how she raised Peter and Gwen tells her that she is going to write a book. The van that the boys are in, flies off.

Peter meets Ultimate Tony and Tony quickly learns that he has an equal in the room. He tells Tony that his Stark quit drinking a while ago. Fury like the idea of a sober Stark. I like Peter telling Tony that Stark hired him, for a time.

Miles recognizes where Mysterio was broadcasting from. Tony is all types of confused by how a guy like Mysterio figured all of this out. I do like the idea of a Mysterio taking to YouTube and making his own videos, that makes sense.

I guess they are still seeking Ultimate Mysterio and Fury sends everybody to the location. The issue ends with who everybody is – Spider-Men, Thor and iron Man. So I guess only Thor was the only new addition.

Round 8: The Fall of Wakanda

The final image of this post shows the details better but I noticed this on one of my rereads of the issue. There are two fun costume decisions that were made for this issue. I’m not sure if Baldeon gets the credit or if it was already determined when he got there.

The first one is something that hopefully got attention at the time. Rogue’s shirt can be zipped all the way up to their throat. That’s pretty impressive as that isn’t how most of her shirts fit her.

The second is that she has the same style of boots as Magik does. There must have been a sale or something!

As much as I like Rogue’s look at this time, that does seem to be a lot of Xs. Is it a good idea to have an X right on your chest? It seems too much like a perfect bullseye. At the time, Rogue only had her absorption power, and whichever power she obtained at the time. So she isn’t nigh-invulnerable like she spent most of her superhero career. Then she has Xs on her shoulder pads and on her belt. I also like her scarf.

Inside front cover is for that Amazing Spider-Man game that I still want to play.

Onto the issue itself :

China. This is during the time when Magik has one fifth of the Phoenix Force. Which was such an awesome moment! She is looking over Iceman and Rogue’s progress. I like the attention to detail to the Phoenix Five’s global plan. One can’t just quickly change the agriculture as it will just collapse under itself. So using Iceman’s ice powers, the ice will gradually melt and not be a shock to the landscape’s system. A very clever plan.

I really do like Baldeon’s art here and Reber’s coloring makes the comic soar as well.

Rogue is happy that the X-Men, together, are making these world changes.

I really like Magik in this issue. Sure the Phoenix brought out some of her inner demons and dark side but she is amazingly blunt and honest. She was confident before but now she has a cosmic fire bird on her side. Her comment about how the X-Men could accomplish more once they are no longer being hunted is spot on.

I like Magik making sure Rogue is doing okay. Thanks to her powers, they can essentially have the same X-Man in two places but Magik worries that it may be taxing Rogue. Rogue can handle it.

You Can tell that those are the same boots there, with that extra flap material at the top.

Iceman calling Magik, boss, makes me smile. She makes a big point about how she isn’t his boss but they are all united and equal. Though, if she was being brutally honest, she is his superior in almost every way. But she does make the point that she has had to tell him a hundred times to stop calling her, boss. So I imagine it does get old after a while. But that’s Iceman for you.

Rogue is on her way to New Orleans and borrows some of Iceman’s powers. He’s far too happy to help as Mardis Gras saved him during his students days, when he was hoping to be an accountant when he grew older.

Then there are a bunch of pages until Magik shows up again.

I like that Rogue is greeted kindly by soldiers. She just froze the large lake that was causing the issue. One of them recognizes a Mississippi accent and she tells him she is from Caldecott County. The solider likes having a local hero helping out even more. So much so, in fact, that he offers her the rest of his catfish lunch. Which is pretty awesome of him to offer and for her to accept.

I adore the page of her just eating the catfish. She really likes it, plus, it must be nice to just relax for once. It doesn’t last long as that same solider, now that he has done something nice for her, informs her that there is a distress call.

Rogue agrees to investigate and creates an ice slide and gets out of there. Turns out it is a flatscan dirty trick and Carol Danvers, as Ms. Marvel, is there to talk to Rogue. Of course, if you once stole a person’s memories and powers, you don’t really anticipate that person just showing up to talk and Rogue punches her in the mouth. To the mouth? I’m not sure.

What follows is a pretty awesome sequence of the two women, with so much baggage, just talking. Sure, they are fighting as well but that’s just because Rogue didn’t listen to Carol at first. Rogue realizes that she is no match against Carol as Iceman’s powers are not so good – or at least, she isn’t experience with them. She gets the idea, as horrible as it is, to just take Carol’s powers – which is pretty mess up. Carol loses her mind for a moment, and starts shouting, how could you do that to me? Which she is completely in the right about. Rogue ruin both of their lives with that and that must have brought so many memories (or lack of memories) to poor Carol. Now that she is Captain Marvel, but not at this point in publication, I feel weird typing Ms. Marvel. I prefer Warbird but she, herself, has distance herself from that codename.

It isn’t until Carol starts using her energy blasts from her hands that I have the thought of why didn’t Rogue get that power? Did Carol only get that power once she was made into Binary by the Brood? My only real experience with her is with her time in Busiek’s awesome Avengers run and then reading the back issue appearances of her time with the X-Men – which was also spectacular. That must be the reason. I just so associate Carol with hand blasting that I never thought about why Rogue didn’t get that power. That must be the reason though, its post-Binary. Ooof, Carol has had a few codenames over the years. People don’t seem to make fun of her for it like they do Kitty Pryde.

There is this great exchange when Rogue mentions that the X-Men have done more for the world’s actual good than the Avengers have ever even tried. Carol rebuts this with how the changes are too fast and too sudden, they have not been earned. Reminds me of Captain America and Superman’s exchanges in JLAvengers – where Cap thought Superman and his universe, did too much for humanity, whereas Captain America thought that the heroes place was just protecting it from harm.

Carol makes a reference to the incredible, It’s a Good Life, episode of Twilight Zone. Which has a decent sequel in “It’s Still a Good Life” when they brought the Twilight Zone back in 2003.

Rogue states that if the Phoenix Five go bad, the X-Men will stop them, which is exactly what they try to do in AvX 11.

The fight ends when Rogue throws Carol into a body of water and keeps freezing it as Carol tries to break free of it. Once she does, she’s exhausted. Then they get a visitor.

Magik has arrived to take Carol as their newest prisoner. Carol comments on how Magik had a dark soul prior to becoming all powerful. As if flattery would get her far.

Carol states that Illyana is her choice for going crazy first (she isn’t). With this, Illyana slaps tape over Carol’s mouth to silence her.

Rogue starts asking if it is a good idea to put all of the Avengers into one prison. The X-Brig won’t be able to house too many Avengers.

Magik tells her that she has made a prison that will hold anyone. Rogue starts to question how she could build a prison when Magik cuts her off. Illyana moved a piece of Limbo into this realm and that is what they are using as a prison. Limbo on Earth sounds scary.

Illyana makes a chilling reference to how Limbo isn’t easy to escape, which is such a sad reminder of Magik’s origins.

Verkhoyansk Mountains, Russia. I adore Magik’s line, of her trying to assure Rogue that she shouldn’t look so worried, the prison is quite secured. It took me until my second read through to realize that Rogue’s worried expression comes from having a piece of Limbo in the Russian Mountain side. Like, this is how far the Phoenix Five are willing to go to not be stopped. If only that was as far as they were willing to go as Namor will later prove, they are willing to go much farther.

See from that angle how much Rogue and Magik’s boots are the same?

Look how frightening Carol’s new prison cell is! No wonder Rogue will spend the next issue or so trying to bust Carol out of there. We’ll get to those eventually.